City Living

Up until now, my blog posts have only talked about the nature around Melbourne and other parts of Australia (and how much our group prefers it to the city). But let’s clarify real quick that the city of Melbourne is pretty cool too. There are lots of different cafes and restaurants, tons of options for shopping, and some real cool venues.

My roommate and I live on the most well-known street in Melbourne: Flinders Street. It’s right across the road from the historic Flinders Station, where you can catch a train to almost any part of Melbourne or the surrounding suburbs. We’re also situated next to Degraves Street—an alleyway that has restaurants all up and down the way, as well as a really awesome donut shop called “Doughnut Time” that is worth checking out at least once.

The coolest thing about Melbourne is the hidden little streets that they have all over the city. What may look like an unappealing hallway through a building usually opens up to a street of either food, designer shopping, or thrift shopping. They satisfy my little explorer heart when we can’t get out of the city to go hiking. There are loads of little nooks in the city like that and they’re always fun to explore.

One place that my roommate and I love going to is a place called “The Workers Club.” Their prices are cheapest on Monday nights, they usually have a live music component, and the food is amazing. Their meat pies, especially, taste really good and I’m always excited to have some.

Another place that I highly recommend visiting is the immigration museum. If you flash a school ID you can get in for free. The museum itself is much smaller than the Museum of Art that we know and love, but I enjoy it all the same. The Immigration Museum has several permanent exhibits that show you how people began to immigrate to Australia, what the Australian immigration process was like over the years, and the impact of immigration on the aboriginal people that were here before any Europeans were. The museum also has temporary exhibits; this time around there was an exhibit on the Chinese experience in Australia as well as diversity in sport. If you ever come to Australia and find yourself wanting to learn more about its history, this is the place to go.

As my time here in Melbourne goes on and I see more and more, I’ll probably write a few more blogs about the city…so keep your eyes peeled!